Food bank well short of fall food drive goal with end of campaign looming

Guelph Mercury

GUELPH — With the end of the Thanksgiving Food Drive just around the corner, the Guelph Food Bank has a long way to go before reaching its goal.

The three-week food drive, running from Sept. 26 until Oct. 14, aimed to collect 36,287 kilograms of food to keep its hampers full until the Christmas collection. The total amount of food brought in so far, recorded on Friday afternoon, is 12,927 kg — a little more than one-third of the way to reaching the agency’s goal.

“We’re a little bit behind,” said Tracy Marchesich, the community facilitator at the food bank. “But like I said, the community has always rallied.”

On Saturday, the food bank will have a booth set up at the Guelph Home Show with a bin available for people to make food donations throughout the weekend.

Marchesich said dozens of bins that were placed at schools and local businesses will be brought in and counted up on Monday. She said the food bank is relying heavily on this pickup.

“We are solely community supported,” she said, adding the food bank relies on gathering whatever is placed in the bins at grocery stores and businesses.

She said they were also a little behind in reaching their target at around this time last year, but they weren’t behind as much.

Some businesses have asked to keep the bins for an extra week to rally their employees and bring in even more donations.

Marchesich said food bank is always collecting and the drive will continue until their goal is reached.